a while have held the upper hand on these fiscal cliff negotiations because what is it all mean? this is about taxes for democrats, and the bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year, and, look, they are saying republicans are going to come back and say we don't want taxes to go up for those, you know, making less than $250,000 a year or more, so they will come back at the beginning of the year and propose something that can get done. you heard chuck schumer who happens to be reid's top lieutenant say the same thing on "meet the press" last week, so i think that that's what democrats see as their leverage and their fallback. now, republicans see the debt ceiling as their leverage which is a tricky game. >> we're hearing that vice president joe biden has been linked to the negotiations. what do you think his role is in all of this, and why do you think he's being called in now? >> well, mitch mcconnell, a top republican aide told me, picked up the phone and called joe biden because they felt like these talks were going nowhere, that they hadn't heard back from harry reid and dec